It's reminiscent of the Ultima Cena, except that Musk's followers are a little more numerous
Many people compare Elon Musk to Howard Hughes or, closer to us, to Steve Jobs. We could just as easily compare him to Jesus.
Just as Jesus, in his time, resurrected Lazarus or the daughter of Jairus, Tesla and SpaceX came close to clinical death in 2008 before experiencing a true resurrection under Musk's leadership.
Like Jesus, Musk has his apostles, such as Cathy Wood, the famous American manager of the Ark Capital fund and tech thurifer, a sort of female Saint Paul, who praises Musk or his companies, especially Tesla, whenever she can.
Like Jesus, large crowds follow him (mainly via Twitter) from where they can listen to his Sermon.
Like Jesus, he also has many detractors and enemies, who wish to eliminate him. We could mention some ultra ecologists (the Pharisees?) who see in him the devil of infinite growth, the manufacturers of combustion engine cars (the Rabbis?) who see their flock going to the competition or the leaders of authoritarian states (the Romans?) who can't stand the idea that a free internet could fall from the sky like Manna from Heaven.
Saving humanity
And like Jesus, Musk is on Earth to deliver a message of hope and optimism. Yes, technology will save humanity. Yes it is realistic, feasible and fundable within a generation. Musk and his followers have even calculated the cost of this salvation at 10% of the world's GDP over 10 years, or only 1% per year. This ten-year tithe is tempting. With 10 trillion dollars (10 thousand billion), you can, according to him, eradicate the climate danger while having infinite energy and growth.
True or not, what matters here is to understand that everything that guides Musk responds to this imperative: how to save humanity? And on this rock I will build my church. Everything Musk undertakes in the light of this question provides the keys to putting together the bricks of his incredible entrepreneurial puzzle. Contrary to what his hobbyist side might suggest, it is organized in a very coherent way, if you take a look up.
Look up
The fatal risk for humanity is a destruction of the Earth, by man, disease or an asteroid. It is absolutely necessary to have a plan B or more precisely a planet B. From this, many things follow, logically. We need to conquer Mars, so we need many powerful and cheap rockets. So we need to be able to reuse them at will. And that gives SpaceX. It's also a way of looking to Heaven. We come back to Jesus.
Since childhood, men ask themselves the question of what is beyond. Why are we us and not someone else? Why were we born here and now and not somewhere else before or after? It is the birth of human consciousness and if we look at it carefully, this consciousness is not so widespread in the universe. This is why we must preserve this small fragile flame at all costs. To save humanity is first and foremost to save its consciousness as a human being.
A robot in our image
But before considering celestial life, or more precisely Martian life, we must work on our earthly salvation. And for that, obey a Holy Trinity: renewable energy, large-scale battery and all electric. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This redemptive electricity will allow us to atone for our sins as poor polluters. That's what Tesla is all about.
Tesla is more than just cars. It's automated factories, the machine that makes the machine, but also humanoid robots, the famous Optimus. Unlike Boston Dynamics, whose robot looks like a primate, Musk is creating a robot in our image. Isn't this again proof of the power of a demiurge? And we will be able to love our robot as ourselves, because it will work in our place, with no retirement age limit.
Have you noticed that Tesla does not advertise? Like Jesus multiplied the loaves, Tesla makes machines. Like Jesus, his advertising is word of mouth. Electronic version, thanks to Twitter. When you own Twitter, do you still need to advertise?
Sounding out hearts and minds
Twitter might seem like a distraction in the agenda of someone who wants to keep humanity from dying of heat on Earth or cold on Mars.
Twitter allows spreading the Good News electronically, but Twitter is above all one of the most accomplished receptacles of human consciousness. This space without beginning or end where all earthly creatures pour their doubts and hopes, their sorrows and joys. What a beautiful way to get to know people. As God hears everyone at all times, Twitter listens to the prayers, thoughts or resentments of the world.
If we want to save humanity, we have to save its essence, that is to say its consciousness of itself, in the spirit of Musk. What better tool to capture these consciousnesses than Twitter? Twitter allows us to probe the hearts and minds of people around the world in real time. Isn't this a divine capacity par excellence that, coupled with generative AI, promises great prospects, such as giving Optimus robots the ability to speak. In the beginning was the word.
The redeeming machine
This brings us to the stage where the machine joins the man, or is it the other way around, the age where the man must become a machine. The Creator became man to save us. Musk promises to help us become machines to save us. Which, incidentally, promises some nice tensions with the existing churches.
In a world where the stakes of human-machine interactions are right in front of our eyes (chatGPT), where the distinction between real and virtual is disappearing (Metaverse), how can we preserve our human consciousness?
By plugging chips directly into our brains to avoid being relegated to a subordinate rank alongside ultra-intelligent robots? This is the Neuralink project.
By connecting our consciousnesses via a network of satellites to allow the whole to communicate in a fluid and instantaneous way? This is the Starlink project.
With a key word, Link, that we find in the etymology of the word religion.
Thomas Blard
Managing Partner
Titanium.Partners
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